To Joy Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

To Joy Blu-ray Movie Review

Scenes From a Marriage: The Early Years

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 1, 2023

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of Criterion's Ingmar Bergman's Cinema set.

It understandably may be well nigh impossible to choose an "all time greatest filmmaker" of the 20th century, if for no other reason than that personal tastes differ, but I can't imagine any "devoted cineaste" not having Ingmar Bergman at least near the top of their own aggregation. Criterion has been feting some iconic creative forces with expansive box set compendia of films, including Essential Fellini and The Complete Films of Agnès Varda, but in terms of overall offerings and packaging extras, Ingmar Bergman's Cinema may itself be sitting atop a list of finest Blu-ray collection offerings. Some of the films in this impressive collection have in fact had prior releases by Criterion, as should probably be expected, but there are a fair number making their Blu-ray debuts. As tends to be the case with Criterion releases, technical merits are also generally excellent, and the supplements can be very appealing.

It's perhaps indicative of Ingmar Bergman's general sensibilities that there's no ostensible irony in him choosing to title this film To Joy, even given the fact that it begins with a vignette detailing how focal character Stig Erikkson (Stig Olin) is informed that his wife has been killed in an explosion which has also seriously burned their young daughter. The bulk of the rest of the film then unfolds as an elaborate flashback detailing the stormy relationship between Stig and his ultimate spouse Marta Olsson (Maj-Britt Nilsson). This 1950 film was made in the wake of just one of Bergman's many failed relationships, and there's a certain feeling that Bergman may be airing his dirty laundry in public so to speak as well as crafting some kind of cinematic form of penance for any misdeeds he may have committed.

There are kind of tawdry melodramatics going on not just from the immediate setup of a wife offed in an explosion, but also from the subsequent depiction of the rocky courtship and marriage of Stig and Marta, one that reminded me a bit of the roiling relationship at the heart of Penny Serenade, a connection made perhaps subliminally due to the fact that both films rather prominently feature music. In this case, it's not courtesy of a record album, but the fact that both Stig and Marta are (semi?) professional musicians in a regional orchestra led by Maestro Sönderby (Victor Sjöström, years before his legendary performance in Wild Strawberries). The two are introduced in tandem as newcomers to the group, and Sönderby makes no bones about suggesting that the first addition of a woman to their ranks may somehow be violating the laws of nature.

There's a kind of funny throwaway line in Bergman Island where the housekeeper of the Bergman estate is showing renters around the main house and mentions it's where Bergman filmed Scenes from a Marriage, an effort the housekeeper suggests led to innumerable divorces. To Joy actually seems to be hinting at reconciliation after any number of peccadilloes on the part of Stig, until of course that nasty explosion intervenes. Freudians may or may not have a field day with attempting to ferret out what Bergman's "solution" to a troubled marriage ends up being in this tale, and some perhaps fitful closing attempts to hint at glimmers of hope if not outright joy may seem curiously undernourished by what has gone before.

To Joy Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

To Joy is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of The Criterion Collection with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.38:1. Criterion's kind of overwhelming insert book offers nice summations of each film's transfer attributes, and the relevant data points for this film are as follows:

Picture element: 35 mm duplicate negative
Scanner: Scanity
Transfer resolution: 2K
Sound element: 35 mm optical track
Picture and sound restoration: Swedish Film Institute

A bit more information is imparted in a text card preceding the presentation that discloses the digital restoration was completed in 2017. For a lesser known Bergman piece that I suspect wasn't curated especially carefully (hence a duplicate negative as a source element), this is a really nice looking transfer that preserves the film's fairly basic but still rather interesting cinematography with nice contrast and some especially convincing blacks, something that's quite important since many of the scenes of the resident conductor in action are framed against a stark black backdrop (see screenshot 3). Detail levels are typically quite good, if somewhat variable due to what are at time inherited deficiencies due to a glut of optical dissolves, but also due to some slightly variable clarity than can attend the interior scenes in particular. Grain resolves naturally throughout. There's recurrent if minor damage that can be spotted throughout the presentation, including what looks like some slight emulsion damage at times. My score is 3.75.

To Joy Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

To Joy is rife with classical music, as befits its very title, and the good news is the LPCM Mono track offers rather nice reproductions of the orchestral performances, despite an overall sound that is obviously of its era and which might be likened to early "long play" monoaural records of that general time frame. That means the lows in particular may not be especially forceful, and even the midrange can sound just a tad anemic, but there's little if any actual distortion or things like wobble. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

To Joy Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Criterion has packaged To Joy and Summer Interlude on one disc, and neither film is afforded any supplementary material.

To Joy Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

To Joy offers some genuinely involving performances, and Sjöström is of course hugely enjoyable as the sort of crusty professorial type who might be a bit of a precursor to Isak Borg. The film is still overly maudlin and despite fitful attempts not especially "true" to its title. Technical merits are generally solid for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.